SC discards testimony of father who claimed to be 'sole eyewitness' to son's abduction, murder

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has discarded the testimony of a man, who claimed to be the sole eyewitness to the murder of his son due to his 'improbable' behaviour when he allegedly saw his son being abducted. The court's judgement also upheld the acquittal of the six accused persons, including three Delhi police personnel.

A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Pankaj Mithal pointed out that the appellant, Chhote Lal, who was the complainant, remained a mere mute spectator when his son Kishan Sarup was allegedly assaulted and then kidnapped.

"The appellant/complainant, a sole eyewitness, happens to be the most interested witness being the father of the deceased and having long enmity with the group to which the accused persons belong, therefore, his testimony was to be examined with great caution and the High Court was justified in doing so and in doubting it so as to uphold the conviction on his solitary evidence," the bench said.

The court said that his very presence at the time of the incident remained doubtful and the chain of events with regard to circumstantial evidence was not complete.

After going through the facts of the case, the bench said the father has not deposed anything as to why he had not tried to intervene and save his son from assault or stop the accused persons from taking him away in the car.

"He himself had not received any injuries. The statement that he could not do so on account of the threats extended by the accused persons appears to be a bald statement as no one in a situation where his son is being assaulted and carried away would remain a mere spectator," the bench said.

The court also found that the appellant/complainant claimed to be the 'sole eyewitness' but he had neither seen anyone killing his son nor had he deposed that he had seen anyone burning the victim.

"Therefore, he is not actually an eyewitness either to the killing or to the burning of the deceased Kishan Sarup though he may be an eyewitness to the incident which took place on 04.11.2000 at 7 pm wherein a car had chased their motorcycle, pushed them towards the roadside making them fall in the bushes, thereupon assaulting the deceased Kishan Sarup and then taking him away in an injured position in the car," the bench said.

The court also noted other reasons including that the complainant had stated in the FIR that the accused assaulted his son with a knife and iron rod. He didn’t mention about the use of a pistol by the accused. However, the police have recovered an empty cartridge. The official cause of death, as per the victim's post-mortem, is firing from a close range.

As per the evidence on record, the very presence of the complainant even during the incident of November 4, 2000 appears to be doubtful, the court said.

Out of 10 accused, six accused were convicted by the trial court. However, the High Court had subsequently acquitted all the accused — a verdict upheld by the Supreme Court.